Full Idea
To adopt any kind of normative stance is to commit oneself necessarily to the possibility of negation. It involves doing something correctly or incorrectly, so there must exist the possibility of denying or affirming.
Gist of Idea
Normativity needs the possibility of negation, in affirmation and denial
Source
report of Johann Fichte (The Science of Knowing (Wissenschaftslehre) [1st ed] [1794]) by Terry Pinkard - German Philosophy 1760-1860 05
Book Reference
Pinkard,Terry: 'German Philosophy 1760-1860' [CUP 2002], p.115
A Reaction
This seems to be the key idea for understanding Hegel's logic. Personally I think animals have a non-verbal experience of negation - when a partner dies, for example.